Absolute UN Immunity Violates Cholera Victims’ Rights

This article argues that the January 9th ruling in favor of UN immunity in the cholera case violates Haitians’ human rights. Since the UN has provided no alternate mechanism for the victims to seek justice, they had no choice but to take their case to court. If the UN enjoys absolute immunity, the victims have no way to seek justice for the countless deaths and cases of illness caused by the epidemic the UN brought to Haiti.

Five years after Haiti quake, a new setback for cholera victims

January 12 2015 marks 5 years since Haiti was hit by a devastating earthquake hit. Countless victims were killed, homes destroyed, and vital infrastructure reduced to debris.

Already one of the world’s poorest and most fragile countries, Haiti was particularly vulnerable to the effects of a major natural disaster. But perhaps the most deadly and destructive event that year was the introduction of cholera into Haiti for the first time in over a century.

Within the first 30 days after the earthquake, Haitian authorities recorded almost 2,000 deaths from cholera, and things rapidly spiralled out of control. To date, more than 720,000 people in Haiti have contracted cholera, and at least 8,700 people have died of it since 2010.

Attempts to clean up the disease have fared poorly, and cholera rates have spiked again in recent months, with 100 deaths recorded in November 2014.

And of course, it was not the earthquake that brought cholera into Haiti – it was the United Nations.